Roger Daltrey Announces ‘As Long as I Have You’ Album

On June 1, a week before Roger Daltrey begins a tour where he'll perform Tommy with an orchestra, the Who singer will release As Long as I Have You. This will be Daltrey's first record since Going Back Home, his 2014 collaboration with Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.

As Long as I Have You includes covers of songs written by Stephen Stills ("How Far"), Stevie Wonder ("You Haven't Done Nothing"), Nick Cave ("Into My Arms") and Garnet Mimms (the title track). Daltrey also wrote some of the songs, notably "Certified Rose" and "Always Heading Home."

You can listen to "As Long as I Have You" below.

For the singer, it's a return to his roots mixed with the wisdom that can only come with age. "This is a return to the very beginning, to the time before Pete [Townshend] started writing our songs to a time when we were a teenage band playing soul music to small crowds in church halls," Daltrey said in a statement.

"That’s what we were, a soul band," he continued. "And now, I can sing soul with all the experience you need to sing it. Life puts the soul in. I’ve always sung from the heart but when you’re 19, you haven’t had the life experience with all its emotional trials and traumas that you have by the time you get to my age. You carry all the emotional bruises of life and when you sing these songs, those emotions are in your voice. You feel the pain of a lost love. You feel it and you sing it and that’s soul. For a long time, I’ve wanted to return to the simplicity of these songs, to show people my voice, a voice they won’t have heard before. It felt like the right time. It’s where I am, looking back to that time, looking across all those years but also being here, now, in the soulful moment”

Daltrey worked with a band that includes former Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot and Sean Genockey on lead guitar. Townshend contributed guitar on seven tracks, and noted that the record “shows Roger at the height of his powers as a vocalist.” The record was produced by Dave Eringa.

You can pre-order As Long as I Have You at the Who's official store. While there, you can also register to win one of 10 signed test pressings of the record.